Welcome flow

A welcome flow is a short, fixed sequence the bot walks a new visitor through before the AI takes over — a greeting line, "What is your name?", "Your WhatsApp number, so we can follow up?", a choice of what they are looking for. The answers are saved on the chat, shown to the AI, and can turn the chat into a lead.

There is one flow per bot, it runs in a straight line, and you edit it under Welcome flow in the dashboard. Switch it on there; switching it off keeps your steps for later.

When it runs

• When the chat opens — right after your welcome message, before the visitor has typed anything. Suits a sales bot that needs a contact detail from everyone.
• After the visitor's first question — the bot answers first, then asks. Suits a support bot: nobody is asked for a phone number before they have been helped.

A visitor sees the flow once. Coming back to the same browser within 30 days does not restart it.

Step types

• Message — a line the bot says. Several in a row appear as separate bubbles.
• Ask their name, Ask their phone, Ask their email — a question whose answer is checked and saved as the chat's name or contact.
• Ask a question — free text, saved under a key you choose.
• Multiple choice — two to six options shown as buttons under the bubble. The visitor can also type an answer.

Your text can include {{name}} and {{business}}: the visitor's name once you have it, and your business name.

Save as, required, skip

Every question has a Save the answer as field. Name, Phone and Email fill the chat's own name and contact; Custom saves under a short key of your choosing (interest, city) and shows in the chat's visitor details.

Required hides the Skip button. Even so, a phone or email answer is checked, and after two answers that do not look right the bot moves on — nobody is ever trapped in the flow.

Skip if we already know it is on by default for name, phone and email. The question is skipped when the chat already holds that detail, from an earlier run or from a visitor who left their details to talk to a person.

What the visitor sees

Each step is an ordinary bot bubble. For a question the composer's placeholder becomes the question and the keyboard switches to the phone or email layout; choices appear as buttons, with a Skip button when the step is optional. Typing a wrong phone number gets a polite retry.

A visitor who asks something instead of answering — a message ending in a question mark, or longer than a dozen words — gets an AI answer, and the pending question is asked again afterwards.

At the end the bot says your finishing message, or "Thanks! How can I help you today?" if you left it blank, and the chat carries on as normal.

Where the answers go

• To the AI. Every later answer in that chat sees the details as facts — Name: Rahul, Interest: wedding catering — so the bot can address the visitor and stay on topic.
• To the chat. They are listed under visitor details in Chats, and the name and contact become the chat's title and contact.
• To Leads. With Mark the chat as a lead when finished on, the chat becomes a lead with status New the moment the flow completes, with the flow recorded as its source.

Testing it

Save, then open Test. The preview runs the real flow even while your bot is in draft: answer it, skip a step, type a wrong phone number and watch the retry.

Editing the flow while a visitor is halfway through does not break their chat — their run simply ends and the AI takes over.

Tips

• Three questions at most. Every extra question loses visitors. One contact detail and one thing that tells you what they want is usually enough.
• Put the question that matters most first; some visitors stop after it.
• Write in the language your bot speaks. The built-in lines — retries, the default finishing message — follow it.
• Do not ask for anything you will not act on. A phone number nobody calls is a promise you did not keep.